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Amid an existing shortage of primary care doctors, data on nearly 9,000 new U.S. physicians revealed fewer than a quarter pursued a career in primary care, while just 5% elected to practice in rural communities. The situation is likely to worsen without changes in the physician training system, the study's lead author noted. The work was published in the journal Academic Medicine.

Related Summaries

Data from a Merritt Hawkins study showed that nearly 84% of health care leaders and managers said their hospitals and health systems have vacancies for doctors, while 60% reported they were in need of primary care physicians and 42% were in need of specialists.

A study by the Medical Group Management Association highlighted doctors' concerns regarding the ICD-10 transition effective next year. The study, which involved about 1,200 medical groups representing more than 55,000 physicians, found that doctors' greatest concern about meeting the ICD-10 compliance deadline is the absence of coordination and communication of practices with partners such as EHR vendors. Absorbing transition costs and changes in clinical documentation were also among the concerns cited by practices.

Amid an existing shortage of primary care doctors, data on nearly 9,000 new U.S. physicians revealed less than a quarter pursued a career in primary care, while just 5% elected to practice in rural communities. The situation is likely to worsen without changes in the physician training system, the study's lead author noted. The work was published in the journal Academic Medicine.

Fewer than 10% of primary care and specialty physicians had EHR systems that satisfy the meaningful use criteria set by the federal government, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Only 43.5% of respondents reported having a basic EHR. The study was conducted from late 2011 to early 2012 and included 1,820 primary care doctors and specialists.

The U.S. is projected to be short 100,000 primary care physicians in 2020 as more new physicians turn to specialty care, according to the Medical Group Management Association. Medical students should be sent to rural communities where primary care access is particularly limited, an official at the Texas Academy of Family Physicians suggested.